At a White House celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Vice President Kamala Harris sat down to discuss racism, representation and being the eldest daughter.
In a conversation moderated by “Never Been Me” actor Poorna Jagannathan and Just Like Media CEO Jerry Won, Harris sent a message to AAPIs celebrating this month.
“When you walk into a room, you may realize that you are the only one who looks like you or has your lived experiences,” he said. “My message is: go in with your chin up and your shoulders back, knowing that you represent the voices of so many people who are proud to have you in that room. We are all in that room with you. You are not walking alone in that room.»
Addressing a crowd of 1,300 members of the AAPI community at the White House Forum on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, he spoke of the leadership he has seen in the next generation of children of immigrants, pushing the bar for inclusion. .
“If we are going to be fully up to date, we must not be locked out of any system,” he said.
Jagannathan and Harris started the conversation about motherhood. The actress drew parallels between the character she plays in «Never Have I Ever» and the experiences of South Indian mothers trying to raise their children in the US.
“Culturally, the love of a mother, the love of a grandfather, is crossing cultures and languages,” Harris said.
Harris often talks about the story of her own mother, who immigrated to the United States when she was 19 in 1959.
“My mother was the eldest and we all culturally know what it means to be the eldest,” she said. «She was this dark-haired woman with an accent, and I was also very aware, as the older daughter, of how she would be treated.»
Her mother, who was a pioneering breast cancer researcher, instilled in her the drive to fight for immigrant women in particular, she said. She spoke about the continuing consequences of setting aside Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court last year.
“This issue of fighting for women’s reproductive care, for me, is something very personal in terms of a lifelong recognition and understanding of the disparities, injustice, and humiliation that women can face in the health care system. «, said. “If you increase race, if you increase language barriers, there are profound impacts.”
It is a cultural moment that requires AAPIs to be politically active and fight injustice, he said.
“There are attempts occurring in our society to roll back all the hard-won freedoms we have fought for,” he said. “This is a time for everyone to stand up and speak up.”